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1882 map showing
Fairyland in northern Hopkins
County
From Texas state map #2134
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
History in
a Pecan Shell
The first settler,
known by the name of Eli Lindley, came here around 1842. In the 1850s
as people formed a community, the place was called Gay’s Mill
after John Gay who built a waterwheel flour mill here.
That named faded and was replaced by Hilldale in the 1870s,
even though the post office (granted in 1880) was called Fairyland
(or Fairy Land).
One story states that the local women appeared to be as delicate as
fairies and by reason of them living here, the place was refered to
as Fairyland.
In the mid 1880s the population reached 400 and the town had all essential
businesses including a broom factory. In 1891 the town was called
Peerless. The residents were eager to rid themselves of a silly
name like Fairyland, so they chose the name Peerless, after the trade
name of a type of potato. The story goes: when heavy rains prevented
the taking in of the crop, the potatoes rotted in the fields, producing
a stink that the residents found to be “without peer.”
In 1900 Peerless had a population of 250 residents with two churches,
two gristmills and two cotton gins. The school had retained the name
Fairyland, but the post office closed in the first years of the 20th
Century.
The population declined to just 150 in the 1920s and Peerless managed
to get through the Great Depression without an exodus of people. The
school merged with Sulphur
Springs schools in 1943 and the population stayed at 150. Thereafter,
no figures were available.
With the construction of Cooper Lake, the area received new growth,
but there are no numbers from the 2000 census. |
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Hopkins
County 1920s map showing Peerless
From Texas state map #10749
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
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